Wizarding World Of Harry Potter Opens At Universal Studios In Japan

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter opened at Universal Studios Japan Tuesday to the delight of many.

Some of the cast from the films even made an appearance for the grand opening.

Tom Felton, who plays Draco Malfoy, and Evanna Lynch, who is Luna Lovegood in the big-screen productions, welcomed the first 300 specially selected visitors to the attraction by casting a spell, according to The Telegraph. 

"I'm glad that the excitement of Harry Potter is not stopping," Lynch said.

And it certainly isn't. The U.S. Postal Service released 20 Harry Potter Forever stamps last year - seven years after the last book was released - and J.K. Rowling created a buzz when she published a short storywith the wizard earlier this month.

It cost nearly $445 million to construct the addition to the park which spans nine acres in the waterfront district of Osaka. The investment is expected to bring the number of annual visitors from 10 to 12 million each year, according to The Telegraph.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter includes a vast recreation of Hogwarts Castle, complete with talking portraits on the walls, the Flight of the Hippogriff roller-coaster, which dives past Hagrid's hut, and The Three Broomsticks tavern, a favorite with teachers at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. 

It also has the village of Hogsmeade, which was an extension later added to the Universal Orlando Studios Wizarding World that opened this summer.

In Orlando, the Hogwarts Express, which takes the children to and from the school of witchcraft and wizardry, takes visitors to and from Hogwarts castle and Hogsmeade.

The Harry Potter books have been hugely popular in Japan, while the first movie in the franchise - Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - is the fourth-highest grossing movie of all time in Japan. It took around £117 million at today's exchange rates and was only recently overtaken for third spot on the list by Disney's Frozen.